Supreme Court bars entry of tourists in Jarawa tribe habitat

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Andaman & Nicobar Island administration if it intended to keep in isolation the endangered Jarawa tribe and banned all tourist movement in their habitat.

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday wanted to know from Andaman & Nicobar Island administration whether it intended to keep in isolation the extremely endangered Jarawa tribe, which numbered just over 300, and banned all tourist movement in their habitat.

"We need to know the policy of the government. Whether they want the Jarawas to be kept in isolation or to be assimilated in the mainstream," asked a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Gokhale before banning till February 26 movement of all tourist vehicles through the forest road passing through the tribe's habitat.

This order of the court will stop 60 vehicles carrying tourists every day under police escort on the 46-km Andaman Trunk Road that links North Andaman to its southern part, mostly passing through reserve forests and the habitation of Jarawas exposing them to tour operators' antics.

After the court in May 2012 had declared Jarawa inhabited forests as "no-go zones", the administration had slashed the number of vehicles from 200 to 60 per day allowing limited number of tourists to visit limestone cave and mud volcanoes in Baratang Island.

Though additional solicitor general Paras Kuhad said there was strict monitoring of tourist activities and no one is allowed to disembark during the journey through the forests, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Gokhale said it has come to know of instances where people have stopped in between and photographed the Jarawas.

"In India most of the laws are observed in breach," it said before banning tourist movement through the 46-km road link. However, on Kuhad's request, the bench allowed plying of government vehicles carrying essential commodities for Jarawas and other tribes residing in the reserve forest.

In January, 2012, two British dailies had released appalling videos showing semi-naked Jarawa men and women dancing before tourists as part of alleged 'human safari'. In the video, the tourists were seen throwing money, food and bananas at the tribal people. It had forced the government to order an inquiry.

In May last year, the court had upheld the island administration's decision to ban private tour operators from the 5-km buffer zone but sternly warned that no government operated tours would be permitted in the area either.

The notification had declared an area up to 5 km radius of Jarawa Tribal Reserve, from boundary line starting from Constance Bay in South Andaman to Lewis Inlet Bay in Middle Andaman, as buffer zone and said, "Any person other than the members of an aboriginal tribe is prohibited from entering the buffer zone for any commercial and/or tourism activities."

The "no-go" zone order resulted from the pitiable sight of semi-clad Jarawa men, women and children being made to dance in front of tourists in return for food. Jarawas are highly vulnerable to diseases and virus carried by the urban population and live in forests in the western coasts of South and Middle Andaman Islands. The Andaman administration had also proposed to build a sea link to ferry tourists from Port Blair to Baratang Islands, which has limestone cave and mud volcanoes, to avoid tourist contact with the Jarawas.